Elephants were pressed into service to rescue hundreds of foreign tourists trapped in a Nepal jungle safari park, officials said on Monday, as the death toll from flash floods and landslides after four days of heavy rains rose to 70.

An Indian elephant, which had been trapped in swamps after being swept away over 1,700 km into Bangladesh by raging flood waters, died on Wednesday despite valiant efforts by villagers and officials to save him.

A rogue elephant was on Tuesday shot dead in the forests of southern West Bengal by authorised hunters as a "last resort" and as per a decision of the state government after efforts to capture it failed, officials said here.